Vietnam to inspect price hike requests

01 April 2005

The Government has instructed the ministries of Trade, Finance and Industry to jointly inspect the Vietnam Coal Corp. (Vinacoal), Vietnam Steel Corp. (VSC) and Vietnam Cement Corp. (VNCC) following repeated requests from the three State-owned giants to raise selling prices. The instruction, which was released in official letter No.1521/VPCP, said any price hike will have a knock-on effect to the economy as coal, steel and cement are the country’s key economic input factors.

Vinacoal asked the Government to raise the price of coal on March 14. The VSC and VNCC requested a price hike earlier in the month. Vinacoal said raising the selling price will help it to compensate for increased, costs and the need for more investment in coal exploitation, while the VSC and VNCC attributed the request to fluctuations of input materials prices in the world market, saying that an increase in selling prices will help them avoid losses.

Meanwhile, in an effort to keep prices stable, the VNCC has stockpiled 1.5Mt of cement, and has asked its subsidiaries to operate at full throttle.